For some, sleep deprivation is a glamourised as a badge of honour, earned for being constantly on the grind in our capitalist world. For others, it’s a sacrifice that needs to be made to make ends meet. Stella Carmerlengo writes that no matter how you look at it, sleep deprivation is a human rights violation and should be addressed as such.
Most of us have, at some point, muttered the phrase, “There just aren’t enough hours in the day.” We stretch our days thin, sacrificing rest in the name of the ever-present pressure to always do more. As a college student, I know this feeling all too well. With a full courseload, a job, and an internship, I hold countless stories of late nights cooped up in the library grinding out papers and assignments. Fuelled by caffeine and a culture that glorifies sleeplessness as a badge of productivity, I – like so many others – have come to accept exhaustion as a normal part of my life. While a sleep-deprived night here and there might seem like a temporary sacrifice, chronic sleep deprivation isn’t always a choice. For many, it’s a systemic issue tied to human rights.
Chronic sleep loss takes a serious toll on the body and mind. When we aren’t well rested, we aren’t just cranky – we face slowed cognitive function, a weakened immune system, and even a higher risk of serious health issues like heart disease and early death. These effects don’t stop at physical health. Sleep deprivation is linked to increased rates of depression, anxiety, and the worsening symptoms of PTSD. Yet, despite its important role in our well-being, sleep remains overlooked and under protected.
Technically, sleep fits under existing human rights protections, but is never explicitly mentioned. The right to health, for example, is recognised in Article 25 of the UDHR and Article 12 of the ICESCR. These documents guarantee access to medical care, clean water, and proper nutrition. It isn’t a hot take to say that these are all things that are necessary to stay alive. But there’s an essential piece that is left out of these formal covenants: sleep. Proper sleep is health. You can drink all the water and eat all the healthy food in the world, but without sleep, your body and mind will still break down regardless of the circumstance.
There are a lot of things we could blame universal sleep deprivation on. We could pin it on the endless notifications lighting up our phones at night. Or is it picking up extra shifts at a side job just to get by? Maybe it’s the pressure to squeeze productivity out of every waking hour. Well, I’ll tell you this straight up: hustle culture has turned exhaustion into a status symbol: a direct product of a system that values productivity over the very well-being of its people. We live in a world that treats sleep as expendable, something we can cut back on without regard for consequences. But the consequences are everywhere – rising burnout rates, declining mental health, and worsening physical conditions linked to chronic exhaustion. Greedy companies push the idea that high achievers should be constantly available. They should be checking their emails late at night, working weekends, and putting in extra hours – often unpaid. And it doesn’t stop at corporate jobs. Gig workers, medical staff, and night-shift employees operate in a system that makes quality sleep a privilege rather than a guarantee.
Not everyone is equally sleep-deprived, though. Research shows that race, class, and social status play a role in determining who is likely to get quality rest and who isn’t. In the United States, Black Americans sleep nearly an hour less per night than white Americans. Due to differences in income and environment, sleep becomes a privilege for lower socioeconomic and ethnically diverse groups as they have to contend with noise, crime, and industrial pollution that makes getting rest more difficult. Shift work disproportionately affects Black and Latino workers, forcing them into irregular schedules that harm sleep and health. Medical bias worsens the issue, as Black Americans are less likely to be diagnosed or treated for sleep disorders. The sleep gap isn’t just personal, it’s structural. If sleep is essential to well-being, addressing sleep inequality must be a public health priority.
Beyond socioeconomic factors, sleep deprivation isn’t just a consequence of overwork or poor conditions – it’s also deliberately weaponised. For example, in the aftermath of 9/11, interrogation techniques such as prolonged sleep deprivation and painful stress positions were authorised by the United States. The CIA’s use of sleep deprivation included keeping detainees awake for up to 180 hours, a method intended to break them mentally and physically. The deliberate use of sleep deprivation to weaken individuals proves just how essential rest is to human dignity. If sleep deprivation is recognised as a form of torture in extreme cases, why is it ignored when millions of workers, students, and marginalised communities experience it daily?
Yet, amid these issues, how do we solve this? The first step is recognising sleep as a fundamental human right, not just a personal responsibility. To change this, international organisations must formally recognise sleep – or even rest – as such. But we can’t stop there. More stringent labour laws are needed to protect workers from exploitative overtime policies, especially in industries like healthcare and food service, where exhaustion is essentially built into the job. No one should be forced to sacrifice their health just to keep a paycheck. At the same time, government-funded sleep health campaigns – similar to anti-smoking and mental health initiatives that have historically been beneficial – could help shift attitudes about rest. These campaigns could raise awareness of sleep deprivation risks, promote healthier workplace policies, and push for systemic changes that prevent chronic exhaustion.
We’ve all felt it; that sense that there aren’t enough hours in the day, that rest is something we must sacrifice just to keep up. But maybe the problem isn’t time itself; it’s the way we’ve built a world that treats sleep as negotiable, as something to cut back on rather than protect. Sleep isn’t a privilege; it is a fundamental right. Instead of chasing more hours, maybe it’s time we start reclaiming the ones we already have.
All articles posted on this blog give the views of the author(s), and not the position of the Department of Sociology, LSE Human Rights, nor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Image credit: Krista Mangulsone
The post Exhausted by design: addressing sleep deprivation as a human rights issue first appeared on LSE Human Rights.
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